So Hartlepool

T

TSSeasider

Well-known member
To be honest, I was surprised at the sheer scale of the defeat that Labour have just been handed and it wasn't just here in Hartlepool.

The Tees Valley Mayor took 72% of the vote.

The Police & Crime Commissioner was similar.

The MP created a 7000 majority (more of which later)

Hartlepool Borough Council has seen 13 Tory Councillors elected. They only could field 13 candidates due to a lack of members. It makes them the largest party.

Labour has gone from 6 to 11 and will spin this as the road back; it's not. If the Conservatives had been able to field more candidates, Labour would have been wiped out. We have had loads of little groups of independents that split the vote.

What will happen now, is that the former Brexit/Reform party members will now join the Conservatives and will simply pick the seats off each time they come up for re-election.

Meanwhile, in the MP election, it wasn't so much as the Tories gained votes (they did but only 1000), as the Labour vote collapsing. There is still a pool of citizens who haven't yet been able to vote Tory, but couldn't vote Labour.

So how have Labour lost in such a spectacular way.

Firstly, the left have to stop saying the electorate don't understand. They do. They also need to stop labelling people who don't vote their way thick/racist/cave dwellers.

They have to go out and listen and ask the question "how can we become relevant in your life (again)?" I suspect they won't hear too much of identity and intersectionality, but more of pride in place.

They then need to act on it and bring in authentic left of centre policies which put places at the heart of what they do. And stop with the class war "for the many, not the few" lots of people work hard to become part of the few.

They also need to create the space for a charismatic and relatable leader and shadow cabinet who engage on an emotional level more than the logical level.

The may lose the ideologues and comfortable metropolitan cohort that are currently running the show but if they ever want to be in power, it's probably inevitablely going to have to happen.

The Conservatives haven't even really had to try. The Labour Party messing up has given them a chance to stay in perpetual power; invest on the back of the vote, make people feel valued and proud of where they live and they will keep winning.

It's a very long way back from here for Labour.

Edited to add: The Leader of the Council who led an Independent party of 11; which is now down to 2, is going to join a new independent grouping (mostly ex Lab) and remain Leader. The Deputy Leader (Con) will remain Deputy, for the sake of ease of coalition and continuity in the light of Covid. There will be different internal dynamics around decision making. They Conservatives fully intend to pick off the seats as they become vacant and are up for re-election starting next year.
 
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Ben Houchin the Teesside mayor took on as a personal challenge opening up Teesside airport again to commercial traffic.

The former labour controlled council let the airport fall into a state of rack and ruin and all flights ceased (sound familiar?)

Within 2 years the airport has reopened once again to commercial traffic, yes Covid took its toll and slowed things down but from summer this year and for 2022 no fresher than 4 airlines have signed contracts to fly out of Teesside airport once again.

Any wonder these people get re-elected For doing so much for the local economy.

Meanwhile in Blackpool not one Labour controlled councillor wants to see the airport open again to commercial flights
Where as the conservatives all do, shame Ben Houchin isn’t mayor of Blackpool. 👍
 
Jaffa_The_Hut said:
Ben Houchin the Teesside mayor took on as a personal challenge opening up Teesside airport again to commercial traffic.

The former labour controlled council let the airport fall into a state of rack and ruin and all flights ceased (sound familiar?)

Within 2 years the airport has reopened once again to commercial traffic, yes Covid took its toll and slowed things down but from summer this year and for 2022 no fresher than 4 airlines have signed contracts to fly out of Teesside airport once again.

Any wonder these people get re-elected For doing so much for the local economy.

Meanwhile in Blackpool not one Labour controlled councillor wants to see the airport open again to commercial flights
Where as the conservatives all do, shame Ben Houchin isn’t mayor of Blackpool. 👍
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But is Ben Behind these initiatives? Or does he just pop up for the photo opportunity and claim the credit?
 
Mexboroseasider said:
But is Ben Behind these initiatives? Or does he just pop up for the photo opportunity and claim the credit?
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Nope.
I’ve been following aviation for decades and been following Ben Houchin the last couple of years he has taken it upon himself to talk to the airlines in person only last week he met with executives of Ryanair about them returning next year.
He said it’s going to create up 2,500 jobs at the airport directly and indirectly.
Yes time will tell and he’ll live or die by the sword if it doesn’t happen but he’s a man of the people that’s for sure and they love him for what he’s doing for the local community.
No one on the Fylde coast comes even close to Ben but at least Scott Benton (Con MP for Blackpool south) is fully behind opening the airport up to commercial traffic again but sadly the owners of the airport (labour controlled Blackpool council) don’t give a shit about it.
 
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Jaffa_The_Hut said:
Nope.
I’ve been following aviation for decades and been following Ben Houchin the last couple of years he has taken it upon himself to talk to the airlines in person only last week he met with executives of Ryanair about them returning next year.
He said it’s going to create up 2,500 jobs at the airport directly and indirectly.
Yes time will tell and he’ll live or die by the sword if it doesn’t happen but he’s a man of the people that’s for sure and they love him for what he’s doing for the local community.
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Well good for him if he can get it done. I’m just a bit tired of people popping up to claim credit for every success they had little involvement in and then disassociating themselves from frack ups even when their fingerprints are all over it.
 
Mexboroseasider said:
Well good for him if he can get it done. I’m just a bit tired of people popping up to claim credit for every success they had little involvement in and then disassociating themselves from frack ups even when their fingerprints are all over it.
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Like I said time will tell the bloke needs to be given the opportunity and I for one wish the guy every success in these challenging times. 👍
 
It’s all quite simple really, nationaly people have had enough of British hating lefties running down our great country, locally to Hartlepool and the north east it hasn’t escaped attention up there the level of investment,job creation and regeneration that is down to the tories after years of labour neglect.
 
Poultongirl said:
It’s all quite simple really, nationaly people have had enough of British hating lefties running down our great country, locally to Hartlepool and the north east it hasn’t escaped attention up there the level of investment,job creation and regeneration that is down to the tories after years of labour neglect.
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That’s interesting. Do you have a verifiable figure for all this additional investment in the NE? As opposed to promises about levelling up? From a chap who has betrayed the DUP, the fishing industry, exporters, several wives and girlfriends and who thought the ESL was “a corking idea” - up until the point it wasn’t.
 
Like all your other posts on this subject TSSeasider i really enjoyed reading this because it makes so much sense to me. I would describe myself as a traditional labour party supporter whom walked away from the party years ago for a number of issues but in particular revolted by the anti-semitism that was permitted to flourish. The conservatives did not beat the party, labour inflicted that on themselves by not listening and by having little empathy for the needs and cares of those whom relied on them in the past. I agree fully with your answers to the problems. I have found the demise of the party very sad and hope the party heed such advice as many of us would love to support the party again. It would also be so good to see the smile wiped of the faces of both Boris and the old bag over the border.
 
Ruperthoop said:
Like all your other posts on this subject TSSeasider i really enjoyed reading this because it makes so much sense to me. I would describe myself as a traditional labour party supporter whom walked away from the party years ago for a number of issues but in particular revolted by the anti-semitism that was permitted to flourish. The conservatives did not beat the party, labour inflicted that on themselves by not listening and by having little empathy for the needs and cares of those whom relied on them in the past. I agree fully with your answers to the problems. I have found the demise of the party very sad and hope the party heed such advice as many of us would love to support the party again. It would also be so good to see the smile wiped of the faces of both Boris and the old bag over the border.
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I know what you mean Rupert.

I was a life long member of the Tory Party but woke up one morning to find I was disgusted with myself for falling for all the lies, fraud and duplicity.

I also voted Leave in the referendum but am now shocked and stunned to find it’s all argy bargy and not at all The Land of Milk and Honey that was promised.

Honestly I’m so cross I could spit.
 
There's no doubt that the English working class are moving more to the right. And that's something that Labour need to address.
It's also a fact that there are multiple parties on the centre left and their vote is split and it simply hands seats the Tories. If you look at % votes in the last GE, right and left are pretty much evenly split although you wouldn't think it.

I've been a Labour voter all my life and I have absolutely no idea what they stand for at the moment.
 
The thing about Ben Houchen is that he said he'd buy the airport and he has.

But, it's costing taxpayers £2m/year and I'm not sure that a state owned airport when we are expected to reduce our air travel is a great idea.

Even rebranding Teesside International rather than Durham Tees Valley is about the emotional attachment to place and pride.

Again with Teesport becoming a Freeport.

We are creating a tax haven when we need a greater tax take. 16,000 jobs, that are new jobs to our area, but perhaps there will be 16,000 displaced from other areas of the UK; creating a net loss to the tax payers.

But it's an emotional thing, we've got a Freeport, but Tyneside doesn't.

Somehow, Labour must become emotionally intelligent and get their heads around it and then create policies which matter and will benefit everybody.

And looking at tonight's decision to sack Angela Raynor seems devisive rather than decisive. It's possibly not the best way to start.
 
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L’étranger said:
If only Labour had the emotional intelligence to put forward someone dressed as a monkey they would have walked it 👍
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You see, the fella in the monkey suit got elected 3 times, because he listened.

In fact the then Labour Council ran a campaign to change the Constitution as they couldn't win against him.

He only wore it the first time, but was in tune with the population of the town.

Nice fella Stuart too. His kids were in the same class at different times with one of my kids in primary school (mixed year groups).
 
Teeside Freeport? Is this all part of the Bozo plan to turn the UK into a tax haven just offshore Europe? Well, if little Luxembourg can take the mickey like that for decades...
 
TSSeasider said:
We are creating a tax haven when we need a greater tax take. 16,000 jobs, that are new jobs to our area, but perhaps there will be 16,000 displaced from other areas of the UK; creating a net loss to the tax payers.
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That would be true if it's a zero sum game, it isn't.
 
If you don’t want Labour to be for the many not the few you aren’t left wing. Which is fine, you can be a Lib Dem, you can be a Conservative. But Labour is a left wing party. 80-90% of Conservatives who vote every election have voted Tory all their life and will always vote Tory. Any opposition party shouldn’t take seriously their critiques. Or else you’ll just create a second Tory party. And it goes the other way too. If you were a Tory leader and some left wing Labour person were telling you they would never vote Tory unless they tax the rich and spend, the Conservatives aren’t suddenly going to change who they are because of that.

Miliband lost by 7 pts. Then Corbyn lost by 2, then he lost by 11. Labour has lost with centrists, pulled it back very close with a ‘loony lefty’ and then got decimated with the same loony lefty. And what’s funny is Conservatives are saying Labour is doing badly now because Starmer is too left wing - when most left wing people don’t even like him because he’s been pandering to the working class town Tory voters in their view!
 
Labour did themselves no favours going into this without at least a core manifesto.
I know it’s the done thing to try to keep your powder dry, but that only really works if you become leader when there are no big elections like this one before the next general election.
People don’t know what you stand for, which is what a lot of people are saying.
They may take a little hope from Wales, not much though, as it seems voters have been rewarding those who have led through the pandemic. This effect may fade.
All in all looks very bad for them though.
 
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